Product Features - Descriptions

Feature	Category	Description
Direct Data Integration with Daily Refresh	Data Connection	Cascade offers robust integration capabilities with raw, unprocessed data from numerous sources, including sophisticated databases, Excel spreadsheets, loan management systems, client relationship management systems, and more. This flexibility allows users to effortlessly access and analyze data from multiple origins, enhancing insights and decision-making. To ensure that all information is current and relevant, Cascade pulls data on a daily basis, keeping users equipped with the most up-to-date insights for informed actions.
Loan Tape Cracking / Analysis	Data Connection	Cascade transforms and standardizes raw transaction data from loan tapes to accurately rebuild all calculations related to balances, days past due, write-offs, and other key metrics. By eliminating reliance on pre-calculated values, this service ensures that each figure is verifiable against the raw data, instilling confidence in the accuracy and integrity of users' insights.
Data Integration with Third Parties	Data Connection	Cascade can integrate or facilitate data exports with other third party service providers including back-up servicers, master servicers, cash collection agents, SPV/Trust managers, and more. Back-up servicers can be turned from cold to hot through daily data feeds built for them.
Raw Data Validation	Data Validation	Cascade validates all data against over 100 rigorous rules, continually updating and expanding its rule set to ensure the accuracy of all processed information. This feature provides users with a comprehensive report on any data concerns, enabling informed decision-making and enhancing data integrity across all analyses.
Data Integrity Tracking	Data Validation	Cascade enables users to track data quality and errors over time, offering insights into how data is being cleaned and improved. This feature allows users to monitor progress, identify trends in data quality, and understand the effectiveness of data remediation efforts, fostering a culture of continuous improvement and accuracy.
Asset-level Historical Analytics	Data Analysis	Cascade provides 30+ dynamic dashboards, focusing on key areas such as volume, default rates, collections, cash flows, and loan characteristics. This feature allows users to quickly identify trends and insights, facilitating informed investment decisions without extensive time investment, thereby streamlining the analysis process and enhancing overall efficiency. Users benefit from this capability pre-deal closing and can easily catch up on portfolio company performance, maximizing their productivity and minimizing wasted time.
Tailored Stratifications	Data Analysis	Cascade can produce stratified analytics along any metric available in the underlying data, from FICO scores to sales channels and more. This allows for diving deep into the data without needing to build pivot tables or charts in a spreadsheet.
Customized Insights and Automation for Investors	Data Analysis	Cascade partners with investors to identify the specific calculations and outputs vital for analyzing key data, automating the process to deliver tailored insights through interactive charts and dashboards. Whether simulating future cash flows under multiple scenarios, assessing default ranges, or developing new covenants and methodologies for calculating defaults, Cascade's emphasis on utilizing raw data empowers investors to gain critical insights necessary to future-proof their investments.
Multiple Currency Support	Data Analysis	Cascade handles datatapes in local currency or with multiple currencies seamlessly, with APIs to FX rates to convert to base currencies like USD for investors.
Loantape Exports on Demand	Data Export	Cascade offers standard data exports in both abbreviated and full formats, complete with all calculated values, enabling investors to perform their own calculations using standard loan tapes. This approach eliminates the hours spent deciphering ad hoc loan tapes, streamlining the analysis process. Additionally, Cascade's loan tapes are available on demand and contain the latest data, ensuring that no time is wasted waiting for critical information.
Customized Data Exports for Investors	Data Export	Cascade partners with investors to create customized data exports for all portfolio companies, ensuring seamless integration into existing workflows. This feature significantly enhances the operational efficiency of teams involved in both pre-deal and post-deal operations. By offering tailored exports, Cascade empowers teams to streamline their processes, make more informed decisions, and analyze data consistently against other portfolio companies using repeatable processes and analyses.
Custom Financial Statement Ingestion	Financial Statements	Cascade allows users to integrate their financial statements—including balance sheets, profit and loss statements, cash flows, or any customized report—through direct uploads or database connections. With Cascade's automation and mapping tools, data can be uploaded and transformed in seconds, ensuring real-time updates. This flexibility guarantees that financial statement information is always current, providing users with accurate and timely data for informed decision-making.
Standardized Financial Statement Mapping	Financial Statements	Cascade also maps financial statements to a standardized template, enabling investors to easily analyze financial data across different companies. This feature facilitates comparative analysis while also allowing users to switch back to the original view to examine specific line items, ensuring a comprehensive understanding of each company's financial performance.
Financial Statement KPI Dashboards	Financial Statements	Cascade offers standard financial statement analysis through dynamic dashboards, empowering users to quickly gain insights from financial data. This feature streamlines the analysis process, allowing for immediate comprehension of key financial metrics and trends, ultimately supporting informed decision-making.
Financial Statement Validation	Financial Statements	Cascade offers robust financial statement validation through a series of rigorous checks, ensuring the accuracy of data and preventing errors during reporting. This feature enhances data integrity, allowing users to trust their financial reports and make informed decisions confidently.
Change Detection in Financial Statements	Financial Statements	Cascade automatically detects changes when new financial statements are uploaded, promptly informing all users about any restatements. This feature eliminates the need for users to spend hours searching for updates, ensuring they stay informed and can focus on analysis and decision-making without delay.
Budget vs. Actual Financial Statement Analysis	Financial Statements	Cascade offers a comprehensive Budget vs. Actual financial statement analysis, allowing users to compare their projected financial performance against actual results. This feature enables stakeholders to quickly identify variances, assess performance against financial goals, and make informed adjustments to strategies. By providing clear visualizations and insights, users can understand financial health in real time and drive more effective decision-making for future planning.
Legal Library for Structuring	Structuring	Cascade features a comprehensive legal library that covers portfolio and asset-level covenants, financial statement covenants, borrowing base calculations, and reporting obligations. This resource is easy to browse and utilize during the structuring phase. Each legal definition incorporates formulas to ensure accurate calculation representation, enhancing clarity and eliminating common mathematical errors often found in legal documents. Additionally, the library can be easily shared with legal counsel, facilitating smoother collaboration and reducing the need for endless back-and-forth communication with lawyers.
Deal Workbook for Asset-Backed Lending	Structuring	Cascade offers a deal workbook that includes the 200 most common economic items that must be accounted for and negotiated when structuring an asset-backed lending facility. This workbook can be easily shared among all parties—including lenders, borrowers, lawyers, and agents—ensuring that everyone is aligned and on the same page. By facilitating collaboration, the deal workbook helps to ensure that no critical elements are overlooked during the negotiation process.
Digitized Deal Contracts	Structuring	Cascade digitizes deal contracts during the onboarding process to ingest all relevant economic terms so that they can be tracked easily.
Data-Driven Eligibility Selection	Structuring	Cascade empowers users to identify key variables in eligibility selection that influence risk and volume, enabling them to select the most appropriate eligibility characteristics with data-backed precision. This feature enhances decision-making by providing insights that help mitigate risk and optimize lending volume, ensuring a more targeted and effective approach while structuring legal agreements.
Covenant Backtesting and Customization	Structuring	Cascade empowers users to backtest multiple covenants prior to deal closing, ensuring the right covenants are selected for optimal performance. Users can choose from an unlimited number of covenants within a comprehensive covenant library and customize them to meet specific parameters. This feature includes the ability to backtest against real data, guaranteeing that the appropriate covenants and trigger levels are established during the structuring phase to prevent unnecessary covenant breaches once the deal goes live. If a specific covenant is not available in the library, users can easily create new covenants within the Cascade framework, allowing for rapid iterations and enhanced customization tailored to the unique features of each deal. This flexibility significantly boosts operational efficiency and compliance throughout the loan's lifecycle.
Borrowing Base Simulation	Structuring	Cascade enables users to simulate borrowing bases using both historic and ongoing data during the structuring phase. This feature allows for comprehensive monitoring and analysis before finalizing legal documents, ensuring that the collateral value is accurately calculated in alignment with deal parameters. By providing real-time insights, Cascade helps users make informed decisions and refine their strategies effectively before execution.
Shadow Facility for Testing Amendments and Waivers	Structuring	Cascade offers a shadow facility that allows investors and borrowers to test potential amendments and waivers of a deal before implementation. Users can evaluate the implications of changing terms by applying these adjustments to historic data or by setting them up for ongoing monitoring. This feature enables stakeholders to see how modifications may impact compliance and overall deal performance, facilitating more informed decision-making prior to finalizing any changes.
Bank Account Integration	Bank Account	Cascade integrates with bank accounts via multiple sources, including Plaid and the SWIFT network, ensuring that it continuously receives daily bank balances. This integration provides users with real-time visibility into their financial positions, allowing for accurate cash flow management and informed decision-making based on up-to-date financial data.
Collection Account Reconciliation and Fraud Detection	Bank Account	Cascade reconciles Collection Account inflows with actual payments derived from loan tapes, ensuring the proper flow of funds and enabling the early identification of any potential fraud. This feature provides investors with a level of insight that was previously unavailable, enhancing transparency and trust in financial operations while safeguarding against discrepancies and fraudulent activities.
Daily Borrowing Base Calculations	Facility Management	Cascade calculates borrowing bases daily, providing all stakeholders with the most up-to-date valuations without requiring borrowers to submit documents. Through direct data integrations, stakeholders receive real-time updates on collateral value, eliminating the need to wait until the end of the month or quarter for information. This proactive approach enables users to stay informed and address potential issues before they arise, enhancing overall risk management and financial oversight.
Customizable Borrowing Base View	Facility Management	Cascade provides users with the ability to customize the borrowing base view on a deal-by-deal basis, enabling the selection and highlighting of the most relevant items for each specific transaction. This tailored approach ensures that users can easily interpret critical data, enhancing clarity and facilitating informed decision-making tailored to the unique aspects of each deal.
Comprehensive Borrowing Base Collateral File	Facility Management	Cascade provides a detailed Borrowing Base collateral file that specifies which pool a loan is eligible for, along with clear visibility into any ineligibility issues. If a loan is deemed ineligible, the system identifies the specific rule(s) that the loan has breached. This feature enhances transparency and accountability, allowing users to quickly understand the status of each loan within the collateral framework, facilitating informed decision-making and effective risk management.
Portfolio Covenant Calculations	Facility Management	Cascade conducts daily calculations for portfolio covenants, providing users with valuable insights into covenant performance well before the end of the reporting period. By keeping stakeholders informed about the current status of covenants prior to test dates, this feature enables proactive identification of potential issues and the implementation of corrective actions. In addition to monitoring, portfolio covenants can be audited, with each legally defined term calculated for transparency. Users can easily understand how calculations are derived and identify potential causes of any breaches, enhancing risk management and supporting informed decision-making to maintain compliance and optimize portfolio performance.
Financial Covenant Calculations	Facility Management	Cascade provides robust financial covenant calculations, ensuring accurate and timely assessment of compliance with key financial metrics. This feature allows users to automatically compute essential covenants, such as debt-to-equity ratios, interest coverage ratios, and more, based on real-time financial data. By automating these calculations, Cascade helps stakeholders monitor compliance effectively, reduce manual errors, and maintain alignment with financial agreements, ultimately enhancing risk management and operational efficiency. In addition to monitoring, financial covenants can be audited, with each legally defined term calculated for transparency. Users can easily understand how calculations are derived and identify potential causes of any breaches, enhancing risk management and supporting informed decision-making to maintain compliance and optimize portfolio performance.
Payment Schedule Generation	Facility Management	Cascade calculates all interest, service fees, and other associated costs related to an investment, ensuring that all stakeholders are kept informed and up to date on payment statuses. This feature provides real-time insights into cash flows, allowing users to manage their financial obligations proactively and maintain clear communication among all parties involved. By automating these calculations, Cascade enhances transparency and supports effective financial management throughout the investment lifecycle.
API-driven Reference Rates	Facility Management	Cascade pulls in multiple versions of SOFR and other reference rates automatically to calculate accurate interest payments.
Step-by-step Waterfall Generation	Facility Management	Cascade offers comprehensive waterfall reporting that supports both calculated and manual inputs, complemented by the ability to upload supporting evidence. This feature allows users to run waterfall analyses at any frequency while maintaining accurate and traceable records. By providing flexibility in reporting, Cascade enables stakeholders to gain insights into distribution priorities and cash flow allocations, ensuring that financial activities are transparent and easily verifiable.
Capital Advancement and Repayment Reporting	Facility Management	Cascade provides Capital Advancement and Repayment reporting with automatic signature integration and customizable documents, enabling borrowers to efficiently call and repay capital while ensuring compliance. When capital is called or repaid, automatic triggers initiate updates to other reporting elements, such as borrowing bases and cash flows. This streamlined process enhances operational efficiency and ensures that stakeholders have real-time insights into their financial positions.
Centralized Document Repository with Automatic Report Generation	Facility Management	Cascade features a comprehensive document center that enables borrowers to maintain deal compliance effortlessly. Users receive timely notifications about upcoming reporting requirements, ensuring they never miss a deadline. Additionally, by integrating reports directly into Cascade, borrowers can generate, file, and sign reports seamlessly within the platform. This streamlined process enhances efficiency and simplifies compliance management, keeping all stakeholders informed and aligned.
Reporting Templates for Standardized Compliance	Facility Management	Cascade collaborates with investors to develop customized reporting templates that encompass all necessary information. These templates can be standalone Excel workbooks or embedded directly into signed certificates, enabling investors to standardize reporting obligations across various facilities. This flexibility simplifies the reporting process, enhances consistency, and ensures that all stakeholders meet compliance requirements efficiently and effectively.
Customized Deal KPI Dashboards	Facility Management	Cascade offers customized dashboards that focus on specific deal elements, including bank utilization, collateral changes, hedging values, and other key metrics tailored to each transaction. This feature allows users to create personalized views that highlight the most relevant information for their unique deals, enabling more effective monitoring and analysis. By providing insights specific to each deal, Cascade enhances decision-making and ensures that stakeholders remain informed about critical factors affecting their investments.
Cash Audits with Oversampling	Audits	Cascade generates targeted cash audits that oversample suspicious activity based on proprietary algorithms, ensuring that audits focus on high-risk transactions rather than randomly selecting items. This feature allows borrowers to upload supporting documents for each flagged transaction, enabling investors to easily review the evidence and determine its sufficiency. Audits can be created at any frequency and sample size, with comprehensive final audit reports generated for internal compliance purposes. This streamlined approach enhances transparency, reduces risk, and supports informed decision-making for all stakeholders involved.
Customized Underwriting Audits with Oversampling	Audits	Cascade generates underwriting audits that utilize proprietary algorithms to specifically oversample suspicious disbursements, enhancing the scrutiny and accuracy of the review process. Investors and borrowers can collaboratively establish the required documentation for each disbursement, ensuring clarity and accountability throughout the transaction. Borrowers are responsible for uploading all necessary evidence prior to investor review, who then assesses the acceptability of the provided documentation. This structured approach streamlines the auditing process, strengthens compliance, and fosters transparent communication between investors and borrowers, ultimately improving the integrity of the lending process.
Borrowing Base Allocation Optimization	Allocation	Cascade features a borrowing base allocation optimization tool that enables borrowers to strategically assign assets across multiple facilities. This functionality takes into account various factors such as eligibility criteria, concentration limits, shortfalls, and more, ensuring that each loan is allocated to the most appropriate facility. By optimizing asset assignments, borrowers can enhance overall loan performance, maximize collateral utilization, and minimize risks associated with over-concentration or ineligibility.
Master Facility Creation for Enhanced Fund Management	Master Facility	Cascade enables investors to create master facilities designed for leverage providers of funds, where the underlying collateral consists of the facilities being monitored by Cascade. These master facilities can operate multiple levels above the original facility, utilizing data derived from the underlying assets to provide insightful reporting back to the fund leverage provider. This feature enhances oversight, streamlines communication, and allows for more effective management of leveraged funds by ensuring that all relevant data is readily accessible and accurately reported.
Comprehensive Investor Dashboard	Investor Dashboard	Cascade provides a robust Investor Dashboard that delivers a centralized view of key metrics and performance indicators. This user-friendly interface enables investors to swiftly access real-time data on their portfolios, monitor compliance, track cash flows, and assess risk levels. Users have the flexibility to view specific fund performance or an aggregate multi-fund perspective. Additionally, underlying collateral can be benchmarked, allowing for effective comparisons of portfolio company performance and analysis of composite levels of collateral to identify any over-concentration across deals. This feature enhances strategic decision-making and promotes effective risk management across the investment portfolio.
User-Based Notifications for Key Events	Notifications	Cascade offers user-based notifications for critical events, such as borrowing base deficiencies, overdue reporting obligations, and more. This feature ensures that users are promptly alerted to key issues requiring attention, enabling proactive management of financial responsibilities. By providing real-time updates, Cascade enhances accountability and helps stakeholders stay informed, ensuring timely actions can be taken to maintain compliance and optimize operational efficiency.
Unlimited User Seats with Customizable Access	Users	Cascade offers unlimited user seats, alleviating concerns about access for all stakeholders involved. This feature allows administrators to customize user permissions, providing tailored access to specific data, graphs, or facilities. By enabling flexible access controls, users can collaborate effectively while ensuring that sensitive information is securely managed, fostering a more inclusive and efficient team environment.